


give them hell, darling

by sweetiedarling



Series: Dysfunctional Family [7]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Ghosts, Klaus' powers, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-01-23 04:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21314365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetiedarling/pseuds/sweetiedarling
Summary: "It's Klaus," he confirmed and the siblings shook their heads."What the hell is he playing at?" Diego demanded."This is all your fault!" Ben roared, whirling on Reginald. The man's eyes widenened and he opened his mouth to make a comeback, but Ben continued. "You should never have locked him in the mausoleum! Look at what you've done!"
Series: Dysfunctional Family [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1492880
Comments: 4
Kudos: 295





	give them hell, darling

**Author's Note:**

> This was sitting mostly finished in my drafts and because i started work, my story updates will probably be sparse now, so i decided to finish it up quickly and post it. I hope you like it :) x

Five had sent them all back in time into their younger bodies with only seconds to spare before the world ended. Klaus had landed on the hard floor with a thud, the breath immediately knocked out of him. Vanya was still unconscious and Five quickly joined her, exhausted from the trip to the past. And now Ben was alive, having been sent back to a period in which he had still been alive.

Klaus had been quick to envelope him in a bone crushing hug, not wanting to let go. Over a decade of not being able to physically interact with his ghost brother and now he was alive again. It could almost be called a dream come true, if the circumstances were a little different.

He had only let go of Ben when their other siblings made their presence known, wanting to say hi to Ben, too. And that was weird, because until now, only Klaus had been able to see him. Later on, he would deny any feelings of jealousy at the sight of his siblings talking and interacting with Ben, but until then, he'd stood back and watched with an unimpressed face.

And then Luther, little Number One (it was hard to take him seriously now) decided to take charge once more. He still had Vanya in his arms, and Klaus had to wonder if that was a good idea, as he told Diego to grab Number Five so they could head inside and further plan what to do.

Diego had grabbed Five 'but only because he wanted to' and, per Luther's order, they went inside the Academy and straight to Vanya's room where they laid her down on the bed. On the way, Diego had stopped at Five's room and put him to bed, knowing he would be out for a while before joining them

When they reconvened in Vanya's room, there was a lot of loud whispering as they argued over what they should do. In the end, Ben had spoken up and told them off, which was weird because until now, he'd only made those sort of comments to Klaus. The others had looked abashed until Luther once again spoke up and told him he was right, and that arguing would get them nowhere.

So then they had agreed that they needed to get Vanya off her pills and train her powers. They had over a decade now until he apocalypse, which gave them plenty of time to train Vanya in a way that would keep both herself and everyone else safe. And in the meantime, they could work on fixing their relationships with each other.

Unfortunately, because of their plan and the time period they were in, they had needed someone to distract Reginald. And who better to do that than Klaus? The biggest distraction. The 'attention whore', as he'd been called on the past. So, against his better judgement and Ben's warning look, Klaus had volunteered. They'd wanted him to anyway, even if they hadn't said it. Besides, he had no useful powers to help train his sister, despite what had happened in the theatre. If he wanted to manifest any ghost, it would be Ben, but his brother was no longer dead, so.

With that settled, they'd gone to bed that night and over the next week, after telling Five and Vanya of their plan, they waited for the perfect opportunity to begin training. It came on Friday when none of them had training and Reginald was to spend the entire day in his office scribbling in his notebook like some overly fascinated child.

Klaus had gassed himself up, told himself he could do it, and had knocked on the door. Then, as some part of his mind told him to tell Reginald it was nothing and to walk away, he told his father that he could make the ghosts corporeal. This seemed to grab Reginald's attention as he placed his pen down and decided Klaus needed some training.

As expected, and it really shouldn't be expected when talking about your own father, Reginald ushered him into the car and drove him out to the mausoleum. He was given a few items of food and some bottles of water, which could only mean one thing. He wasn't leaving the mausoleum today.

The closer they got to the mausoleum, the more Klaus panicked. The ghosts grew in numbers the closer they got, and they were growing more vicious. They all screamed at him and wailed his name in hopes of someone saving them, but he couldn't so he kept his head down, blinked back tears, and swallowed his terror as his father roughly deposited him inside of the cause of many future (past?) nightmares.

And then the doors shut and Klaus was left alone in the dark. Currently the ghosts hadn't shown themselves, so, for something to do, he opened one of the bottles and drank some water.

Like something had triggered it, the ghosts began making themselves known. They stepped through the walls or appeared out of thin air, and started screaming at him, trying to touch him, begging him for help. Klaus tossed the half empty bottle away from him and shuffled backwards until his back met the concrete walls and he could go no further.

The ghosts didn't seem to notice as they simply continued approaching until they were mere centimetres away from him. Klaus closed his eyes tightly and willed them to go away as he sobbed into his knees, arms wrapped around his legs.

It was only when something blue pierced the blackness behind his lids and the ghosts had gone oddly silent that he reluctantly opened his eyes. His hands were glowing that same blue they had done when he'd manifested Ben, as were the ghosts. He panicked for a moment, thinking they would now be able to tear at him like they'd been trying to, but the ghosts only stood there and stared at him, as if awaiting orders.

Feeling a bit stupid, and unsure if he was right, he silently ordered them to take a step back, away from him. They did. 

A grin spread across his face and he chuckled quietly, voice a bit horse from crying. 

He ordered them to open the mausoleum doors, and from there it was all a bit of a blur.

... 

Ben was bored and getting frustrated with his siblings fussing over him twenty-four/seven. He wanted to hang out with Klaus, at least then he could have an actual conversation without his brother constantly touching him and reminding him that he was now alive. 

He and Diego had chosen not to go and help Vanya with her first session, the former because he really didn't want to bring out the Horrors, and the latter because he was going to be taking turns with Luther. That meant he had been stuck with Diego who'd been giving him weird looks all day, as if he couldn't quite believe he was there. 

So he wandered the halls of the Academy in search of his (admittedly favourite) brother, starting down in the foyer and slowly making his way throughout the house. He'd shout his name, but he didn't want to face Reginald's wrath for being too noisy on his day off.

By the time he'd searched the house, almost two hours had passed. He hadn't seen Klaus once. He'd passed by Diego multiple times and each time, his brother told him he hadn't seen Klaus. He hadn't seen or heard Reginald, either.

Worry was growing in the pit of his stomach, the Horror making itself known as they grew restless. He knew Klaus was supposed to distract their father today which was why he was so worried. He hoped Klaus hadn't been sent to the mausoleum. If he had, he didn't think he'd be able to stop himself from tearing Reginald apart with Them.

Huffing, Ben turned around and headed back to lounge where he'd last seen Diego. 

He arrived at the lounge a few minutes later, having walked from halfway across the enormous house, and found Diego was still there, carving something into the underside of the coffee table with one of his knives. 

Ben coughed to get his attention. Diego whirled around, looking worried for a split second before he seemed to realise who was in the doorway.

"Don't creep up on me like that, man," Diego sighed and stood up. "Did you find Klaus?"

Ben shook his head.

"You still haven't seen him?" Ben asked.

"No," Diego frowned, "I'm getting kind of worried. You don't think he's..."

"No, of course not," Ben scoffed, knowing what Diego was implying, "he's been trying to get sober."

"Really? Oh, well good for him," Diego looked proud and relieved.

"Yeah, which is why it doesn't make sense that I can't find him. Unless..." Ben trailed off, suddenly remembering that none of his other siblings knew about Klaus' special training.

"Unless what?" Diego prompted.

Ben sighed. If Klaus was in the mausoleum then they needed to help him, to get him out before something bad happened. In order to do that, though, his siblings needed to know. Starting with Diego.

"Klaus-"

A deep rumbling interrupted him, almost sending both him and Diego off their feet. They grabbed hold of one another, steadying each other until the rumbling died down a minute later. Some ornaments had fallen down from their places in the lounge and a couple of the paintings were now wonky.

Diego and Ben looked at each other in confusion.

"What was that?" Ben asked.

"Earthquake?" Diego shrugged, cautiously letting go of Ben.

"That didn't feel like an earthquake. It felt like the house itself was shaking," Ben slowly said as he looked around.

Then the rumbling came again before Diego could begin to think that over. The rumbling was much worse this time, the tremors making it seem like the house was shivering in cold weather. It felt like whatever was causing the rumbling was getting closer and closer, almost like a bad omen. The lights in the lounge and the foyer flickered, sending them back and forth into darkness without warning.

"What the hell is going on?" Diego barked when the trembling still hadn't stopped minutes later.

"I don't know, but I don't like it!" He replied over the sound of objects in the house falling down and breaking.

The front doors to the Academy flew open and Ben and Diego peered around the lounge doorway to see who had opened them. All of their siblings were stumbling through the doors, looking panicked and confused. Vanya was the last to tumble through the doors and she slammed them shut behind her, leaning against the doors a second later to catch her breath.

When the siblings spotted Ben and Diego, they hurried over, bombarding the pair with noise as they all spoke over one another. 

"What's happening?" Luther's voice reverberated throughout the foyer when they all stopped talking, somehow making its way over all of the noise. 

"We don't know! Everything just started going crazy!" Diego shouted to be heard.

"We thought it might be an earthquake," Ben shrugged, knowing everything happening wasn't an earthquake. 

"This isn't an earthquake," Five shook his head, then almost fell over after a particularly rough tremor, "something's wrong."

Vanya said something, but with the noise and her usually timid nature, she wasn't heard over the noise. Luther, the closest to her, leaned closer and asked her to repeat herself.

This time, she could be heard and her words left them shocked.

"I think I saw a ghost!" She shouted, then immediately shrank on herself.

"What?" Ben asked, eyes wide.

"When we were running back," she explained, "I think I saw a ghost."

"Where's Klaus?" Allison asked.

At the same time, Diego stated, "no, you must've saw something else."

"We don't know where Klaus is," Ben said with fear. "What did the ghost look like, Vanya? Quick!"

"I-I don't know. It was blue, but it looked like it was covered in blood and- it looked like a ghost!" Vanya panicked.

Ben rushed over to the window of the lounge and pulled the curtains and netting back to look outside. What he saw shocked him to the core. 

"It's nighttime," he muttered to himself, knowing he couldn't be heard by his siblings. 

"What?" Diego shouted. 

"It's nighttime! It was day a few minutes ago!" Ben yelled back, whirling around to get his his point across.

His siblings' faces fell and Five jumped over to the window beside him, pressing his hands against the glass to steady himself as he looked outside. True to Ben's word, the world outside was dark. The sky was black and the stars could be seen, flickering streetlights had turned on. Car lights were flashing and trees were rustling and swaying with the earth-deep rumbling. 

Diego and Allison deposited themselves either side of Ben and Five, while Vanya and Luther peered over their shoulders. 

They all stared, shellshocked, out of the window, unsure of what to do. They didn't know what was happening, who or what was causing it, or how to stop it. Even Five looked perplexed. 

Vanya squeezed herself between Allison and Five so she was face to face with the window as she apparently saw something. Then, her eyes widened and she pointed to something.

"Look! There, that's what I saw!" She exclaimed over the noise, finger pressed to a shaking glass pane.

The others looked closer and, sure enough, just down the road where Vanya was pointing to, a blue, ghostly figure slowly wandered the streets. As they looked around, they realised, in the distance, they could see more ghosts. More and more were appearing on the streets, and their appearances seemed to be getting closer to the Academy, as if approaching the siblings. They were appearing at a slowly quickening pace. 

Footsteps managed to be heard over to noise of the slowly worsening tremors and smashing of ornaments, and the siblings looked up to find Reginald, Pogo, and Grace were approaching them from one of the hallways.

Reginald spotted them in the lounge at the window and with a frown marring his face, stepped into the lounge to confront them.

"Children, it seems I have made a mistake," Reginald announced as he stood steadily in front of them. "Apparently, I misjudged-"

A booming sound reverbrated around the entire house, stemming from the foyer, and even Reginald, who previously looked unperturbed by the rocking house, stumbled in his place. Grace almost fell over, but Diego was quick to reach her side and help steady her.

Blue light reached the lounge from the foyer, coming from the direction of the front doors and, instinctively, everyone held their breaths. Nothing seemed to move for a moment, even the trembling seemed to have died down minutely. Everyone stood still, not daring to disturb whatever was raking place, but then new noise reached everyone's ears; this time, it was the sound of wailing.

Eerie, pale blue figures began showing up, littered around the lounge and foyer, even one stood at the top of the stairs from what everyone could see. Each ghost looked more disgusting than the last with their gruesome injuries, their broken necks and escaping organs. Even the ones without injuries still found a way to disturb everyone, especially the little chimney sweep wiping his cheeks with his dirty hat.

"Is it Klaus?" Vanya muttered sadly, bringing her arms into herself. 

No one replied, too afraid of the answer. 

Five was the first to make a move, jumping passed everyone to reappear at the entrance of the lounge, just off to the side so he was stood behind the doorway.

"Five!" Luther whispered desperately. "Get back here, we don't know what we're dealing with!"

"That's why I have to take a look!" Five hissed back, turning momentarily to give Luther a look.

Luther fell silent and reluctantly let Five peer around the corner.

Everyone stood tensely as he did so, awaiting a report- hopefully not the one they were all thinking about.

A few drawn out seconds later and Five leaned back from the doorway, a contemplative expression on his face. He looked up at the others watching him and frowned.

"It's Klaus," he confirmed and the siblings shook their heads.

"What the hell is he playing at?" Diego demanded.

"This is all your fault!" Ben roared, whirling on Reginald. The man's eyes widenened and he opened his mouth to make a comeback, but Ben continued. "You should never have locked him in the mausoleum! Look at what you've done!"

"How dare you speak to me like that in my own home!" Reginald shouted.

And from there, everything went to shit. The ghosts, who had been previously wandering the house aimlessly, seemed to pick up on Reginald's voice and whirled around to face him, their expressions somehow looking more horrific, if it were possible. The rumbling once again worsened and the blue glow from the foyer started approaching.

As it turned out, the light was emanating from Klaus himself. He made his way to the stand in the centre of the lounge doorway, not even flinching as Five warped away to rejoin his siblings. His eyes were a blue so bright, they almost looked to be white. His hands glowed, along with every other vein in his body, the light running up his arms, his throat, and his temples.

An invisible force blew at his hair, like some sort of wind though nothing else in the house seemed to be effected by it. He was hovering an inch above the floor, the tips of his bare toes scraping the hardwood every so often as he bobbed up and down slightly. The ghosts gathered around Klaus, for once not paying attention to him. In fact, it looked like, for once, they were on his side- under his command.

"Klaus?" Ben started carefully, inching forward. Diego's hand grabbed his wrist, warning him to be careful, but Ben shook him off and continued his approach.

Klaus' lips quirked up into a smirk, the only reaction to Ben's voice, though, it seemed he hadn't heard him at all because then he was levitating over to Reginald, completely ignoring Ben.

"Number Four, you will stop this at once and behave!" Reginald ordered crossly.

Klaus hesitated only for a second before he continued his journey towards his father, the ghosts trailing behind him like his own personal army.

He stopped just in front of Reginald, the two of them plunged into a tense staring match, willing the other to look away first.

Reginald was the loser, looking away briefly after a minute, unable to look into Klaus' glowing eyes any longer. This seemed to satisfy Klaus greatly as his smirk grew into a vindictive grin. He moved backwards a bit, putting a bit of space between himself and Reginald, and everyone held their breath once more in anticipation, unsure of what Klaus was doing and what his motives were.

"Klaus, please," Ben tried again, heart thudding in his chest.

Once again, Klaus didn't show any signs of hearing him. Instead, he looked around the room at the ghosts gathered around, quietly murmuring solemnly to themselves.

"Number Three, take control of the situation," Reginald looked to Allison, who was watching with shock and a little bit of fear etched onto her face. 

Allison nodded, seeming to come back to herself. She straightened up and cleared her throat. 

"_I heard a rumour _that you calmed down and stopped what you were doing," Allison said, voice sickly sweet as her rumour carried across the room and over to Klaus. 

Klaus blinked his eyes as the rumor washed over him, but didn't do anything else other than that. 

They all waited imaptiently for a couple or seconds before they deduced that the rumour hadn't worked. 

"Number One, you know what to do," Reginald turned to Luther who only looked worriee at the order.

"Sir?" Luther questioned.

"Control your brother!" Reginald clarified impatiently.

Luther nodded hesitantly then turned to Klaus, still only watching Reginald. He took in a deep breath, preparing himself mentally, then charged at his brother, intending to throw him to the floor where he could keep him under control or knock him unconscious if things got anymore out of control.

What he, and the others, didn't anticipate as Luther charged at him, was him getting thrown across the room with a single flick of Klaus' wrist. Vanya yelped in shock, and everyone else winced as Number One crashed into the wall.

Luther held a hand to his head, dazed and confused, having not expected such an attack from the brother he previously thought weak in the power area.

Five warped over and grabbed Luther before jumping them back to the others, just in time for the taxidermy animal head to fall and land where Luther had landed.

"Thanks," Luther breathed, head still aching from where he'd hit it on the wall.

"You're welcome," Five nodded, "we need to do soemthing, though. It doesn't look like he's about to stop anytime soon."

"You're right," Luther agreed. "I'd ask Diego to throw one of his knives, but I don't want to risk it."

"Good thinking."

"So, plan?" Luther prompted.

"Well, to me, it looks like he's after Hargreeves. So far, he's ignored the rest of us like we don't even exist, yet he's hardly looked away from the old man," Five concluded.

"Why would he be after dad?"

Five turned to him, an eyebrow raised.

"He's never been a spectacular father," Five explained, then continued before Luther could defend Reginald, "it also looks like Klaus' powers have overwhelmed him, to put it simply. He's not in control. He may think he is, but really, his powers are controlling _him_. Much like what happened with Vanya at the Icarus Theatre. They developed too fast and he couldn't handle them, leading to... well, this."

"So, what do we do? Knock him unconscious, like with Vanya?"

"That looks like our best bet, yes," Five replied, lips pursed and expression grim.

"Okay," Luther nodded, thankful for a plan. Truthfully, he'd been drawing blanks. "You come in from the left, I'll go from behind."

Five jumped over to the left side of the lounge, ready to attack when given the order.

Luther turned to Diego, still watching at Klaus with disbelief.

"Diego!" He called over the noise. Number Two looked at him, peering around Ben to get a good view. "Take the far right, we need to knock him out!"

"Didn't we already try that with you-know-who?" Diego asked incredulously, sending a discreet look to Vanya behind Reginald's back.

"Yeah, well, we're trying it again!" Luther huffed and took his position behind Klaus. "Allison, join Diego, Ben, you join Five! Vanya, mom, Pogo, take cover! Dad, keep his attention on you." 

Everyone did as they were told, Allison hurrying to stand beside Diego, and Ben taking a stand beside Five, looking guilty and worried. Vanya, a concerned mom, and Pogo hurried to take cover behind one of the far couches by the fireplaces where Klaus hopefully wouldn't be able to reach them if he chose to attack.

When everyone was in position, they all shared looks, silently asking if they were all ready. Reginald stood tensely in front of Klaus, waiting impatiently for the children to take care of the situation.

After a long few moments, Luther let out a breath and nodded to himself. 

"Now!" He shouted, loud enough for the others to hear him.

Several things happened in that one moment.

The rumbling finally ceased, the ghosts appeared beside Reginald, their forms suddenly physical as they clawed at the billionaire, and Klaus' hands came up to cover his ears at the sound of the dead screaming about how they wanted revenge.

If any of the siblings had looked closer, they would have seen the tears trailing down his pale cheeks, glistening from the light surrounding him.

Alas, they didn't look closer. Instead, they all ran at him, distantly aware of their father being tackled by corpses, and prepared to knock their brother unconscious. 

Unfortunately, before either of them could lay a hand on him, he let out an ear piercing scream that vibrated the window panes and smashed a vase that had stubbornly stayed standing whilst the house had trembled. A blue pulse escaped Klaus that sent all of his siblings flying back, reminiscent to the way Vanya had almost drained the life force out of them all, except this time, they merely hit the opposing walls (bar Luther, who had gone flying out into the foyer and hit the staircase.)

With the blue pulse coming from Klaus, more ghosts showed themselves, these ones looking like something straight out of a horror movie as they scrambled towards Reginald and joined the others in clawing at him. Then, as soon as everything had exploded in a blue light, it stopped, taking the ghosts with it, as well as whatever energy Klaus had been holding onto.

He dropped to floor like a sack of potatoes along with his siblings, much like a puppet that had, had its strings cut at the end of a performance. And what a performance it had been.

Light shone through the windows, everything brightening now that Klaus was out cold. Reginald slowly got up from the floor where he'd been thrown by the ghosts. He straightened up and brushed out any creases left in his suit. A red line streaked his left cheek, somehow the only visible injury he'd gained.

From behind the couch, Vanya, Grace, and Pogo stood up, the former and latter looking horrified by what had transpired, whilst Grace immediately looked concerned and hurried over to Klaus on the floor in the centre of the lounge.

The other siblings slowly managed to get up from the floor, none of them visibly hurt, and limped over to their brother. Vanya and Pogo joined them a second later, and Reginald tapped his foot as Grace checked Klaus over.

"Well?" Reginald barked.

Grace turned look up at Reginald from where she was knelt, her usual smile somehow now a frown. It didn't suit her.

"No pulse, sir," she reported solemnly, shaking her head.

"What?" Ben whispered brokenly.

Five looked startled and Diego ran a hand through his hair, blinking back tears. Vanya and Allison weren't as successful as they covered their mouths, tears leaking from their eyes and slowly running down their cheeks. Luther turned away, swiping a hand down his face and shaking his head.

Ben knelt down beside Klaus and picked him up, bringing him close to his chest as he cried. After everything they'd been through, he'd expected Klaus' death to be in some dirty alleyway after taking the wrong drug, or getting in one of his dealer's wrong side. Not to be sent back in time into their younger bodies and then to die a week later because he chose to get sober and couldn't handle the consequences.

His shoulders shook as he buried his head into Klaus' shoulder. He brought him closer when someone's hand rested on his shoulder, and shook his head. Briefly, he looked up to see Luther knelt next to him, tears in his eyes. Allison was just over his shoulder, head in her hands and shoulders shaking. Vanya was hugging Pogo and Five was sat on the couch, looking lost. Expectedly, Diego was hugging mom, a small wet patch blooming on her blouse though she was unbothered by it.

Reginald, well, he looked disturbed by all of the public displays of emotion, and that made Ben furious. If it weren't for his father, Klaus would still be alive. If he hadn't been such a shitty father, Five wouldn't have run away in the previous timeline, Vanya wouldn't have destroyed the world, Klaus. Would. Be. Alive.

The Horrors stirred inside his stomach, begging to be let out so they could get rid of the horrible man that was Ben's father, but Ben tensed and pushed them down as he hugged Klaus. It wouldn't be a wise idea to let them out whilst his family was around. They could get hurt.

A desperate gasp startled everyone and Ben jerked along with the body- wait, no, not body- his brother as the necroscope bolted upright from his slouched position in Ben's arms. Ben immediately let go and watched with wide eyes as Klaus took in deep lungfuls of air and felt his chest like he was expecting to find something.

"What the fuck?" Five breathed, standing on the couch.

He hopped down and rushed over to Klaus, staring at him like he was crazy.

"Guys?" Klaus asked slowly, sounding confused. "What's going on?"

The siblings all shared a look over Klaus' head.

"What's the last thing you remember, Klaus?" Allison questioned carefully.

"Uh, I don't know. I was... Oh, I was in the mausoleum," Klaus murmured, more to himself than the others.

The Horrors rolled around in Ben's stomach with agitation, barely contained fury, and Ben wasn't that far behind. His hold tightened possessively on Klaus and he glared over his brother's head at the impassive face of Hargreeves.

"Enough of this tomfoolery, children," Reginald finally stepped in, voice holding his usual authority. "Number Four, it seems you have finally progressed with your powers. We will have to look further into this with more personal training. In the meantime, Grace, take the others and prepare a meal."

"Yes, sir," though Grace looked hesitant to leave her recently revived son alone with Hargreeves, she turned around and began to herd the others.

Most of them refused to move, whilst others (Luther and Allison) simply resigned themselves to listening to the instructions given.

"No," Ben said, glaring at Reginald.

"I beg your pardon, Number Six?" Reginald demanded crossly.

"You will not be giving Klaus anymore personal training," Ben grit out.

"Know your place, boy!" Hargreeves snapped, banging his cane once on the ground. Even Pogo, Reginald's supposed friend, looked unsure and ready to step in from where he stood just behind Hargreeves. "How dare-"

"Shut up!" Ben shouted, holding Klaus steady when he jumped at the noise. "How dare _you_ lock Klaus in a mausoleum with screaming ghosts that want nothing more than to tear him apart, and call it training! How dare _you_ stand there and call yourself our mentor- our father- when all you want is for us to save the world?"

Reginald looked furious where he was standing, grip on his cane white and unwavering. His lips were pursed tightly, his brows were drawn in and he was breathing heavily with barely contained anger. Yet, he let Ben continue.

"You don't care about him- about any of us. We're just weapons to you. We're just soldiers. Little chess pieces for you to move across the board accordingly and whenever it suits you, without regard for if we get checked," Ben growled. He could feel the Horror stirring in his stomach, begging to be released so they could show Reginald what real power looked like. "Well, I've had enough-"

"Ben," Five warned him quietly, and Ben already knew what he meant. Don't fuck up the timeline. They couldn't afford to go back a second time. Ben didn't care, though. 

"No, I really have had enough," Ben told Five then turned back to Hargreeves, "if you ever put Klaus in the mausoleum again or anywhere involving ghosts and dead people- in fact, if you ever put _any_ of us through personal training again, I swear, I will _tear you apart_. Do you understand?"

Though it was phrased as a question, there was only one answer to it and if Reginald got it wrong, it could very well cost him his precious life.

Everyone waited in tense silence for a minute, the children's eyes locked onto Ben and Reginald, whilst Grace looked around, mildly confused at the tension in the air. 

Eventually, Reginald gave a curt nod, though it looked pained.

"Understood," he said, "now take Number Four upstairs and clean yourselves up. Grace, perpare lunch."

"Yes, sir," Grace nodded and left the room behind Reginald.

Pogo lingered a moment, looking between the children before he let a fond smile cross his features, nodded, and left without a word. 

Ben let out a breath of relieved air when the adults were gone and hugged Klaus a moment more. Then, he stood up and assisted his brother in standing too. Klaus still looked weak on his feet, but he managed to remain standing.

"That was totally badass, Benny," Klaus smirked. His voice was breathless and he swayed lightly, yet he still joked.

"Shut up," Ben flushed, thinking back to a mere ago and the anger that had felt like it was fire in his veins.

"I can't believe you just did that," Diego stepped up to them, his own smirk on his face.

"As much as I admire your standing up to the old man, let's hope it doesn't mess up the timeline too much or alert the Commission to our whereabouts," Five said, and with one final look at all of his siblings and the trashed room, he warped away.

Ben turned to Klaus whose eyes were flickering, pushing back against the sweet release of unconsciousness.

"Let them come," he said, "we beat them before, we'll do it again." 

**Author's Note:**

> I sneezed whilst writing this and almost posted it, half finished. Oops.
> 
> Tumblr- @sweetiedxrling


End file.
